1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data transmission method for transmitting and receiving data, such as video and/or audio data in which additional information data (i.e., data hiding or water mark, etc.) are embedded or concealed, and apparatuses for transmitting and reproducing such the video and/or audio data, and in particular, relates to data transmitting and reproducing apparatuses for embedding and detecting the additional information data which are embedded or concealed into the data being transmitted, as well as an information recording medium therefor.
2. Description of Prior Art
Up to now, data hiding has been studied or researched as a technology for embedding or concealing an identification information and/or an annotation into original contents in a form of, such as text data and/or audio/video data. In recent years, the data hiding technology begins to be applied as a technology for protecting a copy right from illegal operations, such as copying of the original data, by embedding such the identification information into them. Such the technology is described in xe2x80x9cData Hiding Technology for Supporting Electronic Water Mark (Upper)xe2x80x9d, pages 149 through 162, NIKKEI ELECTRONICS 1997.2.24 (no.683), by Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.
The data being embedded into the original data, however, are deteriorated through various operations including, such as a filtering, a data compression and so on, thereby, they sometimes happen to be removed from them, for instance, in particular, after encoding/decoding (or converting/inverting) operation thereof. Therefore, such the hidden data are inserted or embedded in the original data or the like repetitively, so as not to be deleted therefrom easily.
However, in the prior art mentioned in the above, there is no description or teaching about a concrete and/or practical way of reproducing the additional information data which are embedded into the original data repetitively, with a low error rate.
Since the video or picture data is large in an amount thereof, therefore, normally it is transferred after being compressed. The transferred data is then de-compressed to be restored into the original data, however, it is impossible to restore them back to the original ones perfectly or completely, due to the processes of such the compression/de-compression. Further, when transmitting the data, errors may occur in the data depending on the route of the data transmission. For restoring such the erred data, it is ordinary to add an error correction code onto it previously, and then so-called correction of the erred data can be performed therewith. However, in the restoration of the data with such the error correction code, though it is possible to detect the error(s) occurring in the data, it is sometimes impossible to restore or correct them if the reliability of the data itself cannot be ensured at a level higher than a certain level. Therefore, it is necessary that an error rate of the data being transmitted must be reduced as low as the error correction is possible to be applied in the level or degree thereof.
An object of the present invention is, therefore, for dissolving the problems in the above-mentioned conventional art, to provide a transmission method of such the data into which additional information data, including identification information data, control data and so on (hereinafter, comprehensively described by xe2x80x9cidentification information dataxe2x80x9d), and a data transmitting apparatus and a data reproducing apparatus, as well as an information recording medium therefor.
For achieving the above-mentioned object, in accordance with the present invention, first of all, there is provided a data transmission method for information data containing additional information data therewith, comprising, at a transmitter side, following steps:
a fist step for adding error correction codes for correcting error to said additional information data;
a second step for embedding said additional information data added with said error correction codes into the information data by plural times, repetitively; and
a third step for transmitting the information data embedded with the repetitive additional information data therein.
Also, for achieving the above-mentioned object, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a data transmission method for the information data transmitted through the method as defined in the above, comprising, at a receiver side, following steps:
a fourth step for receiving the transmitted information data embedded with the repetitive additional information data therein;
a fifth step for detecting the repetitive additional information data embedded from said transmitted information data received in the fourth step;
a sixth step for determining said additional information data on a basis of a majority rule when receiving said information data; and
a seventh step for correcting error with using the error correction codes received and determined when said additional information data contains error(s) therein.
Further, for achieving the above-mentioned object, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a data transmission method for information data containing additional information data therewith, comprising, at a transmitter side, following steps:
a fist step for encoding said additional information data in accordance with a predetermined conversion table;
a second step for embedding said additional information data encoded in the above step into the information data by plural times, repetitively; and
a third step for transmitting the information data embedded with the repetitive additional encoded data therein.
Also, for achieving the above-mentioned object, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a data transmission method for the information data transmitted through the method as defined in the above, comprising, at a receiver side, following steps:
a fourth step for receiving the transmitted information data embedded with the repetitive additional information data encoded;
a fifth step for detecting the repetitive additional information data encoded, which are embedded within the information data received;
a sixth step for determining said encoded additional information data on a basis of a majority rule of the repetitive encoded additional information data detected; and
a seventh step for decoding the encoded data into the additional information data.
Further, for achieving the above-mentioned object, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a data transmission method for transmitting information data containing additional information data therewith, comprising following steps at a transmitter side:
a step for preparing data frames of said information data into which the additional information data are to be embedded;
a step for altering at least part of the data frame in accordance with predetermined patterns corresponding to the additional information data to be embedded, for the plural continuous frames, repetitively; and
a step for transmitting the information data embedded with the repetitive additional information data therein.
And, also, for achieving the above-mentioned object, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a data transmission method for the information data transmitted through the method as defined in the above, comprising, at a receiver side, following steps:
a step for receiving the transmitted information data embedded with the repetitive additional information data therein;
a step for detecting the repetitive additional information data embedded from said transmitted information data; and
a step for determining said additional information data on a basis of continuity of the repetitive additional information data detected for a predetermined times.
And also, for achieving the above-mentioned object, in accordance with the present invention, there is further provided a data transmitting apparatus for transmitting information data containing additional information data therewith, comprising:
a first means for adding error correction codes for correcting error to said additional information data;
a second means for embedding the additional information data added with the error correction codes by said first means into the information data by plural times, repetitively; and
a third means for transmitting the information data embedded with the repetitive additional information data therein.
Also, for achieving the above-mentioned object, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a data reproducing apparatus for reproducing the transmitted information data transmitted by the data transmitting apparatus defined in the above, comprising:
a first means for receiving the transmitted information data embedded with the repetitive additional information data therein;
a second means for detecting the additional information data embedded from the transmitted information data received by said first means;
a third means for determining said additional information data on a basis of a majority rule when receiving said information data; and
a fourth means for correcting error with using the error correction codes received and determined when said additional information data contains error(s) therein.
And also, for achieving the above-mentioned object, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a data transmission apparatus for transmitting information data containing additional information data therewith, comprising:
a fist means for encoding said additional information data in accordance with a predetermined conversion table;
a second means for embedding said additional information data encoded in the first means into the information data by plural times, repetitively; and
a third means for transmitting the information data embedded with the repetitive additional encoded data therein.
Also, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a data reproducing apparatus for reproducing the transmitted information data transmitted by the data transmitting apparatus defined in the above, comprising:
a first means for receiving the transmitted information data embedded with the repetitive additional information data encoded;
a second means for detecting the repetitive additional information data encoded which are embedded within the information data received;
a third means for determining said encoded additional information data on a basis of a majority rule of the repetitive encoded additional information data detected; and
a fourth means for decoding the encoded data into the additional information data.
And further, according to the present invention, there is provided a data transmission apparatus for transmitting information data containing additional information data therewith, comprising:
a first means for preparing data frames of said information data into which the additional information data are embedded;
a second means for altering at least part of the data frame in accordance with predetermined patterns corresponding to additional information data to be embedded, for the plural continuous frames, repetitively; and
a third means for transmitting the information data embedded with the repetitive additional information data therein.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a data reproducing apparatus for reproducing the transmitted information data transmitted by the data transmitting apparatus defined in the above, comprising:
a first means for receiving the transmitted information data embedded with the repetitive additional information data therein;
a second means for detecting the repetitive additional information data embedded from said transmitted information data; and
a third means for determining said additional information data on a basis of continuity of the repetitive additional data detected for a predetermined times.
Moreover, also for achieving the above mentioned object, in accordance with the present invention, there is also provided an information recording medium for recording data therein, comprising:
information data being reproducible;
additional information data which are embedded into said information data repetitively; and
error correction codes which are added to said additional information data and also embedded into said information data repetitively.